The beginning
by Foxy the Sly
Summary: She was running - she had to get there before they noticed her... Shiho Miyano escapes the organisation.
1. Chapter 1

Shiho Miyano hid behind a wall as vehicles drove by in every direction. She had to move forward, little by little, hiding from the surrounding darkness.

The "crows" would soon know she was gone, and she had to get to beika without running into anybody.

Beika - her only chance of a future lay in the small hands of a person she had wronged and one of the people who had last seen her sister. That person lived in Beika.

'I only hope he doesn't turn me away...' she thought as she scurried down another block before hiding in the shadows once again.

She was scared of everyone, paranoid that she would be recognized and killed but she still pressed onwards. It must have been a bizarre sight, an auburn haired 6 year old running down the road in the rain, wearing an oversized labcoat and oversized clothing..

Her teeth chattered as she fought to get to _his_ place. Just a few more kilometers and she would rejoin someone who would be just like her.

She ran around another corner,pausing to get her bearings and catch her breath.

She had been running and hiding for hours, an unusual feat for a scientist, but her history with the black organization meant she had been taught toughness and endurance - both very important skills to have.

She finally realised where she was - only a couple blocks further and she would be there. She coughed, but went off once again,as fast as possible.

She would not - could not afford to be seen until she had reached her destination.

Finally the iron gates of the Kudo mansion appeared before her. She knew as soon as she saw them that she would be safe.

The relief flooded over her, and after the efforts she had exerted, the blackness of a dead faint was quick to claim her.

The professor was on his way home after yet another failed experiment when he came across a red and white mass of clothing - just outside Shinichi's house. When he bent down to look closer he saw it was an auburn haired girl in oversized clothing. She seemed to have fainted so he picked her up and bought her into his house, before busying himself making coffee and waiting for her to wake.


	2. Chapter 2

Shiho woke to the smell of warm coffee. Scared that she had been found by the wrong people, she immediately began to analyse her surroundings.

She was lying on a sofa in a badly organised loynge - probably belonging to a bachelor - and opposite her sat an elderly gentleman.

She could not sense him as a member of the organisation but decided to err on the side of caution. She would say very little until she knew where she stood with this man.

"Good morning" the man greeted in a jovial tone. " I am professor Hiroshi Agasa and this is my home"

"Hello" she said, sticking to the shyness and politeness expected of a little girl faced with such an unusual situation. "Why... why am I here?"

"I found you of course. Outside, in the rain in front of Shinichi's mansion."

"Shinichi Kudo? I got there then?"

"Yes that's him. Were you looking for him?"

Shiho nearly nodded before remembering she was supposed to be six. What reason would a six year old have to go looking for a teen detective...

"Tell me young lady, are you in fact older than you appear?"

Hiroshi Agasa could no longer ignore the fact that she had appeared the same way "Conan" had after his transformation.

"What makes you think that?"

Shiho was afraid that he might have been a minor member of the organisation. He could have been on the lookout for her and just now been fishing for more information.

Noticing this avenue of questioning would get him nowhere, professor Agasa stopped and stood to offer her some juice.

"I'll go get something to drink - you must be thirsty. What would you like?"

"I'll have some coffee please."

After a couple more hours of random talking, and an offer to walk her home, Shiho finally trusted Agasa enough to ask to stay with him. It helped that he regularly mentioned that he and Shinichi were neighbours and hinted that he knew the truth.

"Would you allow me to stay here with you?"

Professor Agasa spluttered

"But don't you have parents to go back to?"

"They're dead."

She said this matter of factly as if she had gotten used to it long ago and yet a small tear started to appear in the corner of her eye. Akemi - the last member of her biological family had now joined her parents in an early grave.

Suddenly, it was all too much - she had lost everything over the last couple of months, from her sister , to her very identity as both Sherry and Shiho Miyano and so she blurted it all out. How she was a member of the organisation, how she had worked on a drug for them. How the drug had been used on others and on the subject of her sister's death and her subsequent protest and finally how she came to be outside the kudo mansion.

The professor listened on patiently and ended up offering his help as long as she would need it on the sole condition that she would take this chance at a new life and go to primary school.

The next part of inventing this new life for her took them a couple days of getting used to each other. They had to learn to live with each other as well as establish the rules for their cohabitation.

Finally, the time to enroll her at school came and they had to decide on a name for her new life.

"How did Kudo choose his name?"

"Hehe, as a matter of fact that's a funny story, you see I had just told him not to reveal who he was to anybody when his childhood friend Ran walked in and asked where he was. She saw him hiding under the desk and he ended up putting on his father's glasses and naming himself after two mystery writers. We were in the library of his house at the time you see... Actually, why don't we do that for you too?"

"I'd rather not call myself Agatha Doyle if it's all the same to you."

"We could be more subtle than that... How about Ai like the I from V I Varshowski in Sara Paretski's novels? We could use the character for love ..."

She interrupted him immediately.

" Sorrow . Ai as in sorrow."

Yes, sorrow. That which had bought her to this point. The sorrow linked to the loss of her sister and of her attachment to life.

Agasa continued, hardly noticing her interruption "And for the surname, how about grey, like Cordelia Grey?"

'Grey', she thought. Neither black nor white,the perfect colour for a traitor like her... but it lacked finality.

"Haibara" She said. "My surname will be Haibara."

Yes, grey as in ashes and land or grass indicating renewal of life - her world had burned away, and now she had to live atop the ashes, and start again.

A few days later, as she was preparing to go to school the professor offered to call Conan in order for him to welcome her to the school and so she wouldn't have to be the one to tell him about herself.

" Don't worry professor..." she smirked lightly ad she put on her shoes."I know exactly how to tell him."

And she left, an unusual smile upon her face, to finally meet the person she had been looking for, all those days ago.


End file.
